Study On The Hardness And Microstructure Properties Of Nitrided Ferritic Stainless Steel Powder After Sintering

A powder nitriding experiments has been conducted on AISI 430 ferritic stainless steel samples at temperatures of 700°C, 900°C and 1200°C using Carbolite Horizontal Tube Furnace in nitrogen gas flow. The main objective of the research is to investigate the hardness and microstructure properties of AISI 430 ferritic stainless steel powder and to improve the hardness and microstructure properties of ferritic stainless steel powder by nitriding process. The treatment time was 1 hour and 3 hours. The structure and composition of the nitrided surface layer were analyzed by optical microscope. Also, the hardness technique was used for testing the surface hardness of the nitrided samples.